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<!-- * $Date: 2003/06/25 20:38:09 $                                   -->
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<body>

The netmap plugin package provides the capability to receive output
from a NetMap server.  NetMap is a BBN product that can provide
network topology information.  Using the topology output from the
NetMap server, connectivity between network components can be
visualized over the map. <P>

The main component is the NetMapConnector, which manages the
connection to the NetMapServer.  It uses the NetMapReader to parse
the NetMap server stream, creating NetMapEvents for each line of
output.  These NetMapEvents are distributed to NetMapListeners that
have registered themselves with the NetMapConnector.<P>

The NetMapGraphicLoader is a NetMapListener that uses the
NetMapEvents to create an OMGraphicList that dipicts the network
topology.  The NetMapConnectionHandler is an extension of the
GraphicLoaderConnector, and is a component that looks in the
MapHandler for NetMapConnectors.  If a NetMapConnector is found, the
NetMapConnectionHandler creates a NetMapGraphicLoader,
GraphicLoaderPlugIn, and eventually a PlugInLayer to use to display
the network on the map.<P>

For general OpenMap use, the NetMapConnectionHandler and
NetMapConnector are the only two objects that need to be created and
added to the openmap.properties file in the openmap.components
property.  The other components will be automatically created as needed.

</body>
